


The World Turned Upside Down

by happybeans



Series: Biodad AU [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Irondad, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, biodad au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27974630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happybeans/pseuds/happybeans
Summary: Peter finds out Tony is his biological dad. Angst ensues.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Biodad AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048894
Comments: 14
Kudos: 192
Collections: Irondad Fic Exchange 2020





	The World Turned Upside Down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Malya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malya/gifts).



> Hiii! This story is first in a series and is a gift for AO3 user Malya, aka [iloveirondad on Tumblr!](https://iloveirondad.tumblr.com/)
> 
> The prompt was that Peter finds out he is Tony's biological son and he worries about telling him because he's not sure if Tony would be okay with it or not. 
> 
> Thank you so much for the inspiration, Malya! You can see I really ran with it, and I owe it to you :D

So… Well. Where it starts is actually pretty simple: it starts in a white room with blinding lights. It starts with nurses cheering and Richard “Oh”-ing and Mary teary-eyed grinning.

And Peter was screaming.

These were his first moments of life, the first truths told to him, even if he would only come to consciously understand them far later. This was his family of three.

His mother and father signed the birth certificate, and that was the period at the end of the sentence, the finalization of their happy home.

In the grand scheme of things, their home really didn’t last for long. Soon, he found his family in Uncle Ben, in Aunt May.

Of course, you know that didn’t last for long, either.

Still, he had his aunt, and she was and always would be enough.

He found his place, found himself, and he understood the world.

For fifteen years.

“May, I’m ho—” He freezes, seeing that somebody else is in the apartment. 

Then, that somebody turns around. Tony Stark. The Tony Stark is in his apartment, talking with May and winking at Peter.

And then Tony Stark is telling him he knows he’s Spider-Man, and everything speeds up. Germany. The Vulture. May finds out. 

A new normal is established, one where Peter understands his place. He’s Spider-Man, stopper of low-level crime and Iron-Man’s right-hand man. He’s Peter Parker, May’s nephew and Tony Stark’s intern.

He starts to get to know Tony, who goes from being Tony Stark to Mr. Stark to just Tony. A mentor. A friend. 

He and Tony have what they call “lab days,” where Peter heads over to the tower to work with Tony on homework or his web-shooters or whatever project Tony wants his help with. 

A new normal. It’s good. He still misses Ben every day, and it’s a busy life, being a high-schooler and Spider-Man, but it’s everything Peter could want, and he doesn’t have the nerve to ask for more.

“Hey, Tony.”

Tony looks up, pausing his welding with a quizzical line between his eyebrows.

The blowtorch in his hands blows on.

Peter continues, “Have you ever seen the movie _Zombieland?”_

“Huh?” Tony gestures with the blowtorch before turning it off and setting it down on the ground, shucking off his gloves and tossing them beside it.

Peter tries again, enunciating slowly, “Zo-mbi-lan-duh.”

Tony laughs, saying, “Kid, I can’t hear shit right now. Hold on.” After pulling out his earplugs, he says, “There we go. What are you on about?”

Though he rolls his eyes, Peter can’t help his grin. _“Zombieland_ —you know, the movie? Have you seen it?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it. Why?”

Peter’s mouth opens. It stays that way. He laughs, despite himself.

Tony guffaws. “No shit. You forgot?”

Peter throws his hands up helplessly. He accuses, “You took too long to hear me!”

Laughing, Tony says, “I was welding. You expect me to hear over 100 decibels?”

Peter lets out a breath, shoulders slumping. He’s still grinning as he says petulantly, “You should invent something for that.”

It’s become a go-to phrase for him, by this point. 

“Don’t tempt me,” Tony says, pointing. “Because I will.”

Peter knows he will. That’s half the fun. 

“I’m about finished with this anyway,” Tony says, and he stretches his arms behind his back. “Want me to look over your design real quick?”

“If you have time, yeah. That would be great.”

Peter’s known Tony for the better part of a year now. In the beginning, Peter felt like he had to ask to use Tony’s stuff. Now, though, he doesn’t even hesitate before plopping down in Tony’s chair, playing with the holograms to make a blueprint for his web-shooter idea.

It’s a good thing, what he has here. Tony’s become more than just the billionaire Tony Stark: he’s Tony, a person Peter can trust and look up to.

And with Father’s Day approaching, it gets harder and harder for Peter to deny the way he’s been starting to see Tony.

“Looks good, kiddo,” Tony says, zooming in and out on different parts and spinning the design around. “It looks very inconspicuous.”

Peter warms at the praise, barely keeping his pleased smile from becoming a grin. “Thanks! I want to make sure I can always have them on me.”

“Well, with a design like this, I think you’re all set.”

They work on their respective projects for a little bit longer before Tony sends him home for the night. Peter heads back home, but he can’t quite get everything off his mind. 

“Whatcha thinking about over there?” May asks from the kitchen. He can hear her stirring veggies, fork scraping the pan.

Peter hums, adjusting the picture frame they keep on the table beside the couch. It’s an old one from when Ben was alive, a picture taken of all three of them on a trip to Coney Island. 

Whenever he looks at it, all he sees is Ben. 

“I’m thinking about Ben,” he says. 

May’s quiet. He looks over to see her turning off the burner beneath the pan. She tilts the vegetables into the pot with their pasta to simmer then dusts off her hands. She smiles at Peter as she comes to join him on the couch. 

“And I’m thinking about Tony,” Peter says, and he lets May fill in the blanks.

“You’re close to him, huh?” she asks, sitting down beside him, one hand reaching to play with his hair. 

He nods. Then, he shrugs. “I don’t know. I—I want to be. How do you feel about that?”

“How do _you_ feel about it?”

Peter lets out a slow breath. He looks at the picture again. 

“I’m not forgetting him,” he says.

“I know.”

“And I’m—I’m not replacing him.”

“I know.”

After a few seconds of quiet, May switches from Peter’s hair to his shoulder, pulling him close. 

“Sweetie,” she says, “Ben… He loved you. All he ever wanted was for us to be happy.”

Peter blinks away the heat in his eyes. “I know.”

“Family is more than just blood.” Suddenly, her voice gets weird, serious. “Honey, you do know that, right?”

Peter looks at her. Her eyes are red. “Of course,” Peter says. 

“And you know I love you.”

Eyes wide, Peter says, “I love you, too.”

“Peter… There’s something I—” She laughs, a nervous sound, and she pulls away, sitting with nearly a foot of space between them and running a hand through her hair. “There’s something I probably should have told you about a long time ago.”

Peter blinks, head tilting. “You can tell me anything,” he tells her, and it’s something she’s told him a thousand times.

She laughs again, that same hopeless, airy sound. “I know, baby.” She looks away, up towards the ceiling, and blinks for a couple of seconds while Peter stares at her. “I have no idea how to say this.”

“Should I start making guesses?” Peter asks, aiming to lighten the mood. “Because I can.”

“No,” May starts, but Peter continues:

“I’m adopted.”

It’s an obvious joke with an obvious answer, which is why it makes his mouth drop to an “o” when she pulls in a breath.

He laughs. “What?” he asks, baffled.

“You weren’t adopted, Peter.”

“But?”

“But Richard was infertile. You came from a donor.”

Peter lets this sink in for a second. “Okay?” he says. “What’s the big deal?”

One hand rubbing over the right half of her face, May sniffs a breath. “We don’t know anything for sure. I need you to understand that.”

Peter opens his mouth to interrupt, but May, seeing this, continues, quicker:

“But they knew who the donor was. They thought they did, anyway. It’s—he’s someone you know.”

“Ben?”

There’s quiet between them for a moment. “No, baby,” May says. “It wasn’t Ben. It was… They thought it was Tony.”

For a moment, all Peter hears is the apartment: the air circling in from the vents; the whirring of the refrigerator; and their own heartbeats, thumping fast and out of beat. For a moment, it’s just them.

“Why would they think that?” is all he can think to ask.

May starts explaining, and Peter does his best to listen.

Tony was younger then—sixteen years younger—and sometimes, she says, he made choices that nobody could really explain but himself. The important part is that his parents were SHIELD agents, and they were trying for a child, and. Well. Apparently SHIELD pointed them in the right direction.

“Does… Does Tony know?”

May smiles, sad and only half-there. “I don’t know, sweetie. Do you… Do you want me to ask him?”

“No.” Even as far underwater as he feels, he knows what to say: “No, don’t tell him. I…” He doesn’t know what to say. “I don’t know what to say. I just—I don’t know what to say.”

And, for a moment, it seems like May doesn’t, either.

“I need a minute,” Peter says, and he stands up and walks towards his room.

“It might not be true,” May says, standing. She doesn’t follow him: she stays rooted in place as she calls after him, “We don’t know, Peter. I love you either way. We’re family either way.”

He looks at her, saying, “I love you, too.”

And he shuts the door.

For a couple of seconds, he just stands there, staring at the city out the window which keeps moving around despite everything. Then he pulls out his phone and unlocks it. But who can he call?

He thinks about Ben. He thinks about Tony.

But he can’t see either of them right now. 

The phone rings. “Ned,” he says when his friend picks up. He coughs to clear the hoarseness from his throat. “I—I need you. Can I come over?”

————————

“I’m just saying: I never mentioned it, but I always saw it a little bit.”

Peter breathes a laugh through his nose. “No, you didn’t.”

Ned grins. He turns to look at Peter as he says, “Okay, you’re right, I didn’t. It is kind of compelling, though. I mean…”

He turns back to his desktop computer, on which he’s blown up a picture of Tony Stark’s nose, complete with red arrows and circles he’s drawn in photoshop. He clicks to minimize the page, switching to a window showing Peter’s school picture, which is blown up to take up most of the screen. 

Zooming in further, Ned points to the screen, saying, “I mean, look at the noses. They’re the same, man. And the hairline…”

Peter chews the inside of his cheek. “Yeah, I guess I can see it a little,” he says, even though Ned makes a good point. 

“Look up my dad,” Peter says. “Uh, Richard Parker.”

Ned doesn’t say anything, switching to Google to look it up. He stares at the first web page that pops up for a moment. 

He reads, “Shield agents Mary Fitzpatrick and Richard Parker killed in… Dude?! Your parents were SHIELD agents?”

Peter blushes. “Oops?”

Snorting, Ned says, “How did you never mention this? No wonder you’re so badass.”

He clicks on “images” and pulls up a headshot, looking at Peter to confirm it’s him.

After blowing it up bigger, Ned looks back and forth between Richard and Peter.

“I mean… The eyes match,” Ned says.

“Tony has brown eyes, too,” Peter points out, and Ned nods.

“Hmm… I can kinda see it in the eyebrows? I guess?”

Peter groans, leaning back in the wooden chair they brought in from the dining table. He covers his eyes with his hands. 

“Sorry, man,” Ned says, patting Peter’s knee. “I can’t even imagine. This is kind of a lot.”

Nodding, Peter says, “Yeah.”

Tentatively, Ned says, “Kind of cool, though?”

“I don’t know.”

Peter pulls his hands away from his face, folding them on his lap instead. 

“You and Mr. Stark are kind of close now, though, right? Like. You call him ‘Tony.’”

“That’s true. Don’t get me wrong: it would be cool, but…”

“But?” Ned prompts.

“It’s just… I don’t think Tony wants me like that.”

Ned’s lips press together. “What do you mean?”

Peter sighs. “I don’t know. He’s just never struck me for a guy who wants kids. Have you ever heard his old interviews about it?”

Ned’s quiet for a second. “Those are old interviews, though, dude. Maybe he’s changed.”

“Maybe.”

“Besides, he does choose to hang out with you, doesn’t he?”

Peter opens his mouth, but Ned interrupts him, saying, “And don’t say it’s just because you’re…you-know-who. Obviously, I don’t know him, but from what you’ve said… It sounds like he likes hanging out with you.”

“I guess,” Peter says quietly.

Ned offers him a small smile. “Look, I’ll stop talking about it in a minute because I can tell you’re not with it, but try to think about it. What if—don’t look at me like that—what if he actually does think of you that way?”

Peter opens his mouth to say there’s no way, but Ned says:

“You never know. People change. And it’s obvious he cares about you. Alright, I’m done. There’s my two-cents.”

Peter lets out a breath, smiling. “You might be right. I don’t know.” He shrugs. “But seriously, dude, thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Perish,” Ned jokes with a grin. Then, more seriously, “I’m here for you, man. Any time, seriously. Now… Lego Yoda?”

Peter laughs. “Lego Yoda,” he confirms.

————————

It’s hours later that Peter finally heads home. The sun has long since disappeared, but he opens the door to find that May’s still up.

She sits up where she is on the couch, picking up the remote control to turn down the volume on the TV.

“Peter,” she greets.

“Hi, May,” he says, closing the door but still lingering beside it. “Sorry for leaving. I—”

“Don’t be sorry,” she interrupts. “I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner. I should have done it better.”

“There’s probably no easy way to say it,” Peter says.

They give each other smiles. Small, strained, but still trying. 

Peter steps forward into the room, and May stands. “I was thinking about it,” he says. “I was kinda freaked out, but I feel a little bit better now. It—it doesn’t have to change anything.”

“Not unless you want it to.” Gently, May continues, “Do… Do you want it to?”

“No,” Peter says, and she nods. 

“Okay. That’s… Whatever you want, baby.”

Peter nods. 

He didn’t think that maybe May’s feeling just as out of her element as Peter feels.

They step forward, moving until they have each other in their arms.

Family… It’s always been a fluid concept to Peter, who feels like he’s been passed from person to person over the years. And May’s not even related by blood. Peter knew this. He doesn’t have to convince himself that it’s more than blood. After all, Ned’s family by this point, and they only met within the past couple of years. 

Family is the people you choose to surround yourself with. It’s the people you love. It’s May. Ned. MJ. 

Tony.

Peter feels his eyes heat up, and he hides it by pulling May closer.

But surely Peter’s crossing some kind of line. Tony wants to be Peter’s mentor, sure, but his father? That’s… It’s asking too much. He didn’t sign on for this. Neither of them did.

But here they are. 

Peter Parker(?) pulls himself present, into his aunt’s arms.

“It’s going to be okay,” she tells him.

He doesn’t believe her.

————————

A week later, when he’s at the tower visiting Tony for lab-day, Peter sneaks off to “the bathroom.” Instead, he wanders down the hall, attracting FRIDAY’s attention.

“What is it, Peter?”

“FRIDAY, can you… Can you run a test for me?”

“If you’d like, I could inform Boss of your request.”

“No, I—” He takes a breath then continues casually, “actually, I’d prefer if you didn’t tell him.”

FRIDAY’s quiet. 

Peter continues, “You have my DNA on file, right?”

“Correct.”

Peter thanks the universe for the tests Tony ran on him all those months ago. 

“Could you run…a paternity test with it?”

“I can do that. Would you like me to compare it to the different strands in my database?”

“Is Tony in your database?”

“Yes, Boss is in my database.”

Peter breathes a sigh of relief, glad that he doesn’t have to snatch the hair from Tony’s hairbrush or something. “Yes, please run it, but just for him. Could you… Could you send the result to just the printer in my room? And delete the records after?”

“You would like me to delete all records of the test?”

“Yes, please.”

A half-second of pause. Then: “Okay. The results have been sent to the printer in your room.”

Peter forgot how fast FRIDAY works. 

“Thanks, FRI. Remember not to tell Tony about this.”

“I have no reason to inform Boss.”

“Okay… Good. That’s good.”

He rushes back to the lab, making sure Tony doesn’t get suspicious. 

Tony doesn’t even look up when Peter returns. “Perfect timing,” he says. “Come hold this together for me.”

Peter walks over silently, smiling in an attempt to dispel his nerves.

He can’t get his mind off the test results waiting in his room.

“By the way,” Tony says, oblivious, “what are you doing this Sunday?”

“Uh. Nothing that I know of.”

“Okay. Want to hang out? There’s this party I’m trying to avoid. We could work on a new upgrade for the suit?”

Peter swallows. 

“Sure! Sounds fun.”

It’s only later that night that Peter would remember: Sunday is Father’s Day.

————————

He shoves the test results into his backpack, not even looking at them.

————————

“What do you mean you haven’t looked at them yet?” Ned asks on Friday.

“It doesn’t matter,” Peter says. “He wouldn’t want to be my dad.”

“He invited you over on Father’s Day.”

“He just wants to avoid a party.”

Ned looks at him. “Dude.”

————————

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.

Peter looks over the results.

His heart is in his throat.

It’s a match.

————————

“Dude, you have to tell him.”

“I…”

“He deserves to know.”

“He doesn’t want me.”

“He does.”

“Goodbye, Ned.”

————————

Sunday—Father’s Day—arrives.

Peter’s stomach has been in tangled knots for days.

He shows up to the tower with an envelope. His hand shakes as he hands it over.

“What’s this?” Tony asks. He looks from it to Peter, and his smile falls. “What’s wrong?”

“Open it,” Peter says, voice cracking down the middle.

They’re in the penthouse living room, so high up. There’s near-absolute silence around them.

Tony tears open the envelope slowly and pulls out the card.

 _It’s a Boy!_ the card reads across the front.

He flashes a confused look at Peter but opens the card. A folded-up paper falls out and to the ground. Tony crouches to one knee to pick it up.

Card held between his middle and ring fingers, he straightens up and unfolds the paper.

Peter’s drawn a highlighted circle around Tony’s results.

“Peter, what is this?”

Peter opens his mouth. “I—I—I—”

Tony sets a hand on Peter’s shoulder, eyes set on Peter’s. “Hey,” he says, voice gentler than Peter can ever remember hearing it, “take a breath.”

Peter pulls in a deep breath. His face heats at the same time his eyes fill with tears. 

“I—I ran—FRIDAY ran a test.”

Tony stares at him, patient.

“A paternity test. Between you and me.”

Tony’s mouth parts. His eyes are wide.

“It—we… We matched.”

“What are you saying?” His hand fumble the paper in his haste to look it over again.

“Sixteen years ago, my mom got pregnant from some donor sperm. One year later, I was born.”

“I—you… This isn’t funny.”

“It’s not a joke.”

He looks from the paper to Peter. They lock eyes. 

“FRIDAY,” Tony says, not looking away. “Test Peter’s and my DNA. Paternity test.”

“99.9% certainty,” FRIDAY responds immediately. 

Tony’s mouth hangs open. “Oh my god,” he says. 

Peter cringes.

“Oh my god,” Tony repeats. Then he’s dropping the card and paper and stepping forward, pulling Peter into a hug, one hand pressed onto his back and the other cupping the back of his head. 

Peter can feel Tony’s heart racing. Hell, he’s so close he can hear it. 

Tony pulls back, holding either side of Peter’s face and looking him over. “Oh my god,” he says again, and he pulls him back into the hug. 

“I’m so sorry,” Peter says, voice just barely above a whisper.

Tony’s grip on him tightens before he lets go. “Sorry?” he asks.

With a swallow, Peter says, suddenly unsure. “You didn’t ask for this.”

“Oh, bambino, no. This is… Oh my god.” With a watery laugh, he says, “I’m sorry. I feel like that’s all I can say.”

Peter nods slowly, not quite comprehending. “I get if you…if you want to just forget about all of this—”

“Peter, no,” Tony says. He grabs Peter’s shoulder and holds it tight, his other hand clenched close to his face. “I’m happy.”

“You’re…”

“So, so happy. This is amazing. This is…” He trails off, the shock and joy slipping from his face. He pulls his hand back. “Unless… Unless you would prefer to forget about it?”

Peter’s speechless for a moment.

And Tony’s face goes blank. “Of course you want to forget about it. Why would you want to be related to Tony Stark, let alone his—” He turns as though to walk away, and Peter’s eyes widen.

“No, Tony,” he says, hand reaching out, “wait.” 

Tony freezes, turning his head back. He looks like a deer in headlights, mouth parted and eyes widened. 

“I…” Peter swallows. “I thought you…that you wouldn’t want this.”

“I—why wouldn’t I want this?”

“Because… I don’t know. I thought you didn’t want kids.”

Tony’s lips press together. “I didn’t want kids,” Tony says, and Peter feels his heart fall. “But then I met you, and Peter… I see you as my kid. I—I have for a while, now.”

Peter sucks in a breath. “You… You never…”

With a lop-sided smile, Tony says, “I know. I suck at just saying things. But it’s true.”

“But you…”

“Kid, I invited you over for Father’s Day.”

Now Peter’s the deer in the headlights. “You wanted to get out of a party.”

Tony laughs. “There was no party. It’s… It’s Father’s Day, and I wanted to be with my kid. And…” His smile slowly slips away as he says, “I’m not sure if it’s a sore spot, but I didn’t want you to be alone today, in case it was.”

Because, for a while, Ben was Peter’s father. 

Peter feels tears rush into his eyes, blurring the sight in front of him. 

“Oh, tesoro mio…” His hands cup Peter’s face, thumbs brushing away the tears. He speaks more soft Italian that goes over Peter’s head.

But Peter hears the love in Tony’s words, and it pushes more tears out. 

“I thought you wouldn’t want me.” Peter’s voice breaks. “I thought you’d hate it.”

Tony’s eyes shine as they lock into Peter’s. “Of course I want you,” he says. “You’re Peter.” 

Peter knows a lot about family. And in this moment, it becomes clear that that’s what they are, what they have been for a while, now. Peter was just too in his own head to see it. 

He doesn’t know what the future has in store for them. But as he’s held by his…his dad, Peter thinks one thing:

He truly does believe they’ll be okay.


End file.
